Our company has been around since 2012, so it's no wonder people often ask for clarification between XY Labs (XY), and XYO.
The question is especially important for investors, who buy XY Equity, which is shares in XY, and not our XYO Blockchain project. (Sneak preview: XYO is a project, so you can't invest in it! You can only invest in XY, our Delaware Corporation!)
The Short Answer:
XY Labs is a company, which means you can invest in it, work for it (all our employees work for "XY" not XYO), and it has a lot of projects. XYO is a blockchain project that is comprised of the "XYO Network", as well as smaller apps, software, and devices that are XYO Network-enabled.
The Longer Answer:
XY Labs is a Delaware Corporation and was founded in 2012 by Arie Trouw. It originally focused on sales of Bluetooth "XY Finders", which helped customers locate their missing belongings.
XYO is blockchain project that was co-founded by Arie Trouw, Scott Scheper, and Markus Levin, towards the end of 2017. XYO Network is a cryptonetwork of smartphones, computers, smart-home devices and more. These devices observe and archive data from the physical world using a special cryptographic protocol. This process, called “Geomining”, is powered a crypto Utility Token called XYO Tokens. Learn more about geomining on the XYO Network website.
The Longest Answer:
XY Labs
XY was founded in 2012 as Webble before changing its name. (It's been known as XY Findables, XY - The Findables Company, and XY - The Persistent Company.) We originally focused mainly on consumer products and the sale of our Bluetooth Item Finder: the XY Finder. The XY Finder uses Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) to connect with a phone app to help you find misplaced items, such as keys, backpacks, and purses. The XY4+ is XY’s most recent generation of the XY Finder. Overall, the company’s goal was “Findability”, essentially the idea of making all objects “findable” so nothing is misplaced or ends up lost.
XY's goal of "Findablility", combined with the success of XY Item Finders, led to a qualification by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for a Regulation A+ Offering. This meant that XY Findables could sell stock in the company to “non-accredited” investors. This essentially means we could sell stock to anyone, (though there's still a few rules, like being over the age of 18). Please note that XY Labs is no longer selling equity at this time.
XY then introduced the idea of a cryptographic "XYO Network" in Q4 of 2017. In early 2018, XY minted the first “XYO Token” to be used for smart contracts to access the XYO Network. Throughout 2018, XYO Network continued to become a global leader and name in the crypto-location industry, and the XYO Network now serves as a decentralized location oracle for blockchain smart contracts. In June of 2021, we announced our final name change to XY Labs, which was the name for the COIN division of XY before becoming the company name.
XYO
XYO is a blockchain project that aims to transform the way apps, humans, and hardware devices use location data. It is comprised of the XY Oracle Network (XYO Network), which is a decentralized location oracle for blockchain smart contracts. To break that down, we’ll first think of it as a sports bet:
A sports bet is essentially a “contract” between two people; when a sports team wins, one person wins the bet and claims the money that both parties contributed. In contract terms, they are asking the question “Who won the game?” and consequently paying the party that correctly guessed which team would win the game. In that circumstance, the two people may stream the game from a third-party, or may consult “ESPN” or another sports website for the answer to “Who won the game?”. Once they consult a trusted source, or an “oracle” for this answer, they can enact the sports bet/contract between them and pay the winner.
For the blockchain, oracles exist as trusted entities that have the authority to answer questions a contract might have. With the rise of decentralization, some oracles may compare data from numerous sources in order to retrieve a more trusted response. With the sports bet example, an oracle may check multiple sports news websites, rather than relying on your grandfather’s email about the outcome of the game. In this sense, the decentralization of data sources makes the answer more reliable and less likely to be wrong.
XYO Network seeks to be this decentralized oracle for location data. Until now, many smart contracts have been unable to use reliable and decentralized oracles for contracts related to location. The question “Did my birthday gift for mom arrive in New York?” would normally consult an oracle like UPS or FedEx tracking, which relies on GPS and other forms of centralized location data. XYO Network aims to create and provide a more reliable and decentralized oracle to battle some of the downsides that come with centralized location oracles.